Slow This Bird Down

Blogging, hgjohn, 2012

In 2010 I managed to drag this blog from the verge of antipathetical annihilation. It's strange that while I had heaps of spare time in 2009, as work had never been easier that year, I managed to produce not even 3,500 words. While 2011 was nowhere near as bad, it was a slump and the quality of the posts was patchy in my opinion. That's the challenge - I could be a perfectionist and turn next to nothing out, or I could pump out posts to meet quotas. 2012 was more of the former at the start of the year, though it was a case of maintaining a work rate. Blindly burning through my long-standing buffer of about twenty drafts would leave me at the mercy of current events to provide material. Luckily my trip to London provided impetus and I got awfully chatty about Gran Turismo 5 at the end of the year. From September through to February I was writing around 4,000 words a month, except in December when I wrote double that and January when I wrote a colossal 11,250 words - that's 55% of the word count of the entirety of 2011. You could say I was burnt out by the end of February.

It's My Party

I've often thought of 7 as my lucky number, or at least something of a favourite. I write 7 with a line through the vertical on recommendation after my poor legibility in fourth year maths mixed it up with 2. The reason I shoehorned that memory in is because the blog is seven years old today.

Don't Believe a Word

mirrors_2, ze1, 2003

I've always taken exception to the idea that you should do something you enjoy professionally. If I was to work as a freelance writer, for instance, I would have starved to death long ago even if I set my own deadlines. I could invoke that old Douglas Adams' quote again, but I wouldn't want to look like I'm trying to boost the word count - even though I just have without quoting it. I specifically put a 'Scheduled Posts' gadget on the blog to try and hold myself to my own weak promises and perhaps, I hoped, the Russian web crawlers that read this blog so often might demand that the Buffy The Vampire Slayer post I've been putting off and on for four years now actually turn up in January 2012 like I said on the 31st of last month. Surely that's why they keep viewing that post fifteen times a day, to communicate in the only way they can? I can't imagine it's because they like what I wrote - it's a bloody list of songs I liked last year.

All Important Rubbish Made to Publish Made to Last

It's that time of year again I allow myself to write the worst easiest kind of blog post.

Listen Carefully While I Sing My Comeback Song

Mirrors, Olly Wright, 2006

When all else fails resort to a post about blogging...

When last January rolled around this blog was stagnating. For whatever reason I couldn't write - whether that be writer's block or the limitations of the interface - and resolved to at least post once a month. From all the drafts and notes I decided to work on one of several delayed (seven years) editions for my old website from school. Having spontaneously returned to form, I quickly found myself facing a self-imposed minimum of four posts a month. By June I had completely exhausted the long-standing pool of draft posts and was either resurrecting abandoned posts, republishing old essays, or simply hoping something would come along and inspire me.

Waking Up And Getting Up Has Never Been Easy

Postmen in the Snow, Rupert Brun, 2010

Throughout this productive year I've maintained the post-a-week pace of writing by planning out the following month in advance. Usually there's around ten drafts in varying levels of completion If I'm struggling to bring a scheduled draft up to standard I'll postpone it a month and bring forward a more complete one. December was to be no different, only accommodating a two week gap between the first week and the Christmas week for obvious employment reasons. Unfortunately I fell ill in the first week which scratched the first post and the past two weeks has seen the Royal Mail network buckling under the strain of the seasonal post and periodic blizzards. I've been waking up early, on the streets till late and going to bed early - rinse and repeat. As such, I've neither had the time nor energy to write.

Introductory Nomenclature

Today is World Blog Day. Unbelievably it's been four years since I last did this. Since I realised I no longer read any of the blogs I cited four years ago, and also Para deleted her blog a while back, I decided to link to the ones I read regularly.

Heard From Telegraph Lines

Back at the end of last year I gave the blog a new layout when I realised I had been using an ancient template the whole time. The labels gadget prompted me to get the post tags in order whereupon I noticed there was a gap in the more academic topics between mid-2006 and the end of 2008. Interestingly enough, that was the period this blog lapsed into diary mode. I managed to get back on track in October 2008 when I laboured to produce five whole posts, but it wasn't until this year that I regained motivation by inverse resistance to the rise of microblogging. Since I've mastered Goggle Docs' spreadsheets, here's some illustrations:

Magic Window

Parabola tree, am4ndas, 2009

Having suffered through a three year long mild writing-block, I've suddenly found myself back on a roll. Maybe it was my brief experiment with Twitter that did it: that whilst you can throw any old combination of 140 characters together on Twitter, there's a satisfaction that comes from turning your thoughts and ideas into actual sentences and paragraphs that communicate those concepts. Also I'm a contrarian.

Rejuvenated, I've got through a number of long standing drafts that were featured in a filler-piece from two years ago. So here's another filler telling you what ended up where:

Communication Let Me Down

Beginning, Kenneth Noland, 1958

Though I wouldn't consider this blog to be in the same league as Doctorvee's, it seems many bloggers are facing the same issues.

The post rate here and elsewhere is down. In the early days it's probably true the deluge of posts each consisted of 500 words or less. Occasionally I would post some grand interpretation or theory, until gradually great 2000 word essays felt expected. Writing multiple 100 word entries, even if it is a legitimate non-twitter-esque post, feels like cheating . I've tried Twitter and found 140 characters only suited to celebrities talking about a cloud they saw an hour ago, or more interestingly (links to) breaking news.

Book of Brilliant Things

Ten years ago, before I had an internet connection or Amazon started turning a profit, I remember being at my Nan's and the TV was on. During the programme break there was an advert for Amazon.co.uk. As a 75 year-old she dismissed the internet as a fad. A strange attitude to have for someone born 18 months before the first demonstration of the very thing she's sitting in front of. I do love the smugness that comes from looking back on that.

We've Shared This Thought For Some Considerable Time

Corner Reflector, 2007

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of renaming the blog. A good candidate came to me this afternoon. The current name lacks the effect I thought it had nearly 4 years ago - it's far too vague and doesn't communicate anything in particular. Rebrandings can alienate your audience. I got rid of the visitor counter on the site a good while ago, so I'm unaware if I have one. The last thing I would want to do is have everyone update their bookmarks. This is your chance to speak up if you're there.

That said, this blog is split between essays (the humanities, science) and diary excerpts (girls, vignettes, other girls). One seeks an audience and the other is merely on public display. I'm just uploading my mind bits at a time. As for the character of Herr Niemand, to begin with he's not what you'd call human. I'm still developing him and his story, but I may coerce him into making some more appearances. I'll continue to chip away at the half-dozen drafts that remain, and since I've made my way through several dozen films in the past months I may share my opinions on a select few.

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Thirty Frames A Second

JB Mason, Self Portrait, c1912

It's been a while since more than two posts were published in a single month, with the exception of the holidays. You may notice the preceding post has origins back in 22/06/05, before this blog actually started. I'm suddenly eager to clear out the drafts sitting in the management screen. The continuing problem being that I can't seem to eke out something publishable. The dullards on the street don't have to worry about editing their thought(s) and putting them onto paper, so to speak. In light of this, I've attached two abortive posts.

The two dreams which I've previously described - Astronomic and Old Bedroom - seem to have been phased out upon mention. Most recently I've repeatedly dreamt of losing a tooth, disturbing me to the point that I had trouble sleeping. A new adaptable classic, Tsunami, has filled some of the void. The cause is always different; but always leads to a scramble up the hill I live on through back gardens and over fences, well ahead of the water. Seems to have been ripped straight from the end of Deep Impact. In fact, I love that scene, and have it on DVD. Which probably proves something about the influence of cinema.

The More I See You

As anyone out there may have noticed, this blog seems to slip into comas quite frequently. Which is strange given that I have more free time now than when I started three years ago.

After one year, the number of posts fell by a factor of 10. Two-thirds of all the published posts were made in that first year. There's not a lack of material - the number of drafts has increased again.

Having revisited a lot of the early posts (some of which I'd completely forgotten about) I can say the quality has improved even if the novelty has worn off.

Song With No Name

Once again I find myself unable to complete the pile of drafts waiting to be published. It then occurred to me that I could meet my post-a-month quota by writing about writing - metablogging. I've mentioned the draft backlog a few times before and thought I'd shine some light on the unseen. Perhaps explaining what some of them are about will save me having to work on them. It also prompted me to tidy up.

Celebrate

Ah, two years of blogging. Unlike last year's frantic pace, I've slowed down quite a bit this year. Maybe I've cleared a backlog of thoughts or maybe being unemployed just wasn't much to write about. As I said earlier:

Ëçë wëb-sögnäh eþ satewai jaami to alirazdlis.
This blog is as much for me as for whoever reads it.

There's plenty of stories about being a postman, I just haven't got round to writing about it all. Who doesn't want to hear about psychotic dogs, urine-soaked stairwells, and the passionate hate for people and their mail that develops within no time at all?

Bright Clothes For Winter

Borrowdale from the slopes of Grayrigg Forest, Stephen Dawson, 2004

In my few years of writing on the internet, I've typically taken a break for one month of the year. October appears to have been that month.

My current writing block is afflicting introductions. I could write the rest of the post and then do the intro, but I dislike the break in flow when read back. As a result, I simply haven't written much in October that wasn't already drafted in September. I also have an aversion to publishing anything with less than 500 words.

Through October I've been working on prij.9ax.net (Untitled), preparing pages for forthcoming material. In the past two weeks my linguistics project has received attention after 18 months of neglect. Additionally, I hope to complete two short stories for the New Year - one of which will be a reworking of a piece I wrote 5 years ago in 4th Year English.

Anyway, I went up to the cemetery again on Thursday. I figured a funeral must have taken place when a procession of 30 cars passed by, and stood on the large knoll watching the grave being filled in. I went back into the wooded areas to watch the wildlife.

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What In The World

Fortunately, I was reading through a piece on blog terminology and came across Blog Day - August 31^st. On Blog Day, one recommends 5 other blogs. Thus, gaze in the vertical direction and sample:

She's Your Friend, Until The Bitter End

In just under 6 hours time, this blog will be a year old. It's not dead, in case the lack of posts gave that impression - I'll be typing-up my rêveries from holiday over the weekend, filling in the space between this post and the last Leia-fanboi post.

In one year I've managed to publish 138 posts, almost all of which would still be in my head or in dozens of text files lost in one of the folders in My Documents if I was still having to edit HTML on my old website.

Back At The Wheel

As there's nought to worry about on the Tuition Fees front, I thought I might get back to writing something here.

I know at least a few people have dropped by this blog and at least one has differing opinions on some of the socio-political-economic posts. If you have an opinion on a post or an argument against some of my controversial ideas (eg, killing most people over 30), please comment on it using the Comment feature. There has to be a least one bullet-ridden wall when the revolution comes :P

For those concerned with my Battle Royale obsession, I haven't watched it since last Friday. The Donnie Darko comparison is apt as I only watched that once after my 5 viewings (the following month) and it appears I won't be watching it again for a while (I know it so well, I was actually replaying BR in my
mind last night whilst trying to sleep). Indeed, "the only one worth dying with would be you"

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